The Senate on Thursday opened a constitutional debate over the continued stay of the lawmaker representing Abia South, Enyinnaya Abaribe, following his alleged sack by the All Progressives Grand Alliance.
The upper chamber threatened to invoke Section 68(1) of the Constitution if he fails to voluntarily withdraw his recent defection letter to the African Democratic Congress.
The controversy erupted during plenary after the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, read the sen
ator’s letter of defection alongside others who recently changed party affiliations.Raising concerns over the constitutional implications of the move, Akpabio urged the Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau, to scrutinise the defection letters to determine whether the lawmakers met the constitutional conditions for leaving their parties.
He said, “Deputy Senate President, you may wish to pick the letters and check (to see) if there are any of them that have no division in their political party in line with the constitution. Because I am sure there is no division in APGA.
“Anyone who is from a party that is intact (without crisis), bring them to me. I know what to do in line with the Constitution.”
After reviewing the documents, Barau raised a constitutional point of order and cited the relevant provision governing defections.
“Mr President, with your permission, I read. A member of the Senate and the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat, provided that his membership is not as a result of a division in the political party, which he was previously a member of, or a merger of two or more parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.
“You have read all these letters. Many of these decampees, especially those who are moving from PDP, of course, have every reason, because we know there are two factions in the party. We can see the Wike and Makinde factions,” he said.
Barau explained that his review of the defection letters showed that there was no evidence of internal division in APGA, the party under which Abaribe was elected.
According to him, the Abia lawmaker explained that his decision to leave the party was motivated by concerns about Nigeria drifting toward a one-party state rather than any crisis within APGA.
“You drew my attention to the fact that I should try to study those letters. I made a study, and I discovered, Mr President, that there is no division in APGA.
“But the reason my very good brother gave for defecting is that he doesn’t want a situation where we would have a one-party system in Nigeria.
“That is not what is in this constitution. There is no reason at all. But he has made the point that he is decamping. Otherwise, it would have fallen into the class of those I’m trying to show that what they did was a violation. But it is going to be based on what we investigate, whether what we think Senator Abaribe has done is in violation of the constitution.
“I want to state that to find out whether Senator Abaribe has violated the constitution, please allow Senator Victor Umeh, who was the former chairman of APGA, to investigate,” he noted.
The senator representing Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole, insisted that no crisis within APGA could justify Abaribe’s defection under the constitution.
He said, “I know for a fact that APGA has one chairman and a national executive council that is not in court. There are no issues whatsoever of division or crisis within the party. Only recently, they won the governorship election in Anambra State, showing how potent they are.
“The same thing goes for the Labour Party. The court has affirmed the leadership of the LP, and the decision of the court is valid. That decision has not been vacated. It means you are following the rule of law and you have to wait until the Supreme Court pronounce.
“So, the constitution has not envisaged that people can wake up without any genuine reason. And they even claimed that they consulted their families. They never did.
“So, I think the appropriate sections of the Constitution should be invoked just to teach people a lesson that they should not pretend there is smoke in their house when it is peaceful.
“I think elders should learn to build their houses because people who cannot build their houses cannot build Nigeria. Leaders should build what is not in place and stay where they are. That is what leadership is about.”
Akpabio assured the senators that the chamber would strictly follow the constitution while giving Abaribe a chance to clarify his position.
“I want to thank Oshiomhole for believing in me to have the courage to do the needful. This is because I have sworn to uphold the Nigerian constitution, and I will allow Senator Abaribe a lifeline to reconsider his letter,” he said.
The Leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele, described the situation as constitutionally significant and urged the chamber to allow the senator to reconsider his decision.
He said, “I came from an official assignment, but I am glad that I didn’t miss out on this. What is going on here is very significant to our constitution and our democracy. Senator Abaribe is always a very unique person, and his letter also presents us with a unique situation.
“I have never heard of divisions in his political party. APGA is one of the most peaceful political parties in this country. Even Senator Victor Umeh, who once led the party and was a kingmaker in APGA, knows that there is no division within the party.
“As far as we are concerned, what I would dare to say is to allow Senator Abaribe to withdraw his letter.
“But if he insists, we may have no choice but to refer this letter to the legal department of the National Assembly to advise us if we should go to court or to invoke the relevant provisions of the constitution,” he said.
When asked to read the relevant section again, Barau cited the constitutional provisions governing defections.
“Section 68 of Section 1(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, provides that a member of the National Assembly shall not lose his seat when his membership of the political party that sponsored his election is terminated as a result of a division in that political party.
“A person whose election to the house was sponsored by one political party, if he becomes a member of any other party before the expiration of the period for which that house was elected, provided that his membership of the latter party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member, will lose his seat.
“This section implies that once you change your party and you are not in conformity with this subsection, then the Senate president will be the one to tell you that you are no longer a senator,” he stated.
Defending his defection, Abaribe argued that he had been expelled from APGA before joining the ADC.
“Mr President, I looked at this section again. I am not a lawyer, but at least I went to school. This section does not in any way cover any option or a position where somebody is sacked from their party.
“Therefore, having been sacked from my party since September 2025, I have the letter here. I can read it. It says very clearly that provided there is a division, but there is nothing that says if you have been sacked. I have the evidence, the letters and everything,” he argued.
Bamidele, however, maintained that the constitution also covers circumstances where a lawmaker loses membership of a political party.
“I am saying this because of a very unique issue raised about him being sacked from his political party. We have talked about the qualifications for elections into the Senate and the House of Representatives.
“If you look at Section 65(2) of the Constitution, a person shall be qualified for election under subsection 1 of this Constitution if he has been educated up to at least the School Certificate level or equivalent, and (b) he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that same party. That is the qualification,” he said.
The Senate leader argued that Section 68(1)(b) of the Constitution provides that a senator must vacate his seat if circumstances arise that would have disqualified him from being elected in the first place.
He explained that membership of a political party is a constitutional requirement for election into the National Assembly.
“In other words, Mr President and distinguished colleagues, could Senator Abaribe have been elected if he didn’t have a political party? I am not just a lawyer. By the grace of God, I am a life bencher. I know this law, and I know what I am talking about. Section 68(1b) has envisaged the situation that Senator Abaribe is in today.
“It says any other circumstances, which include being sacked by your political party, would have made you ineligible for election as a member. It is very clear.
“Again, I keep saying that let us allow Senator Abaribe to withdraw his letter and therefore continue to see how we can manage having him in this chamber.
“Today, he is not a member of any political party. He is not part of the majority or minority unless we are going to create a third aisle for those who neither belong to the majority nor the minority, which the constitution itself did not envisage.
“That is a circumstance that can render you ineligible. So we will give you till our next sitting to reconsider or take a position,” Bamidele stated.
Midway through the proceedings, Akpabio warned Victor Umeh to refrain from provoking the chamber while attempting to defend Abaribe.
He said, “Thank you for being honest. You have just confirmed what I said, that there is no division and that you are not leaving as a result of any division, but because of a supposed sack. But we don’t have evidence of that sack.
“Let us give Senator Abaribe one week to produce evidence of his dismissal. We know you are very intelligent and may be reading these things from your head.”
Abaribe had, in January, announced his defection from APGA to the ADC during a political gathering at the Nike Lake Resort in Enugu, alongside the former presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, who also joined the party.
The Abia South senator had earlier joined APGA in 2023 after leaving his former party to contest the senatorial seat.
Four days ago, the Abia State chapter of APGA demanded that Abaribe and his House of Representatives colleague, Alex Mascot Ikwechegh, vacate their seats in the National Assembly following their defections to other parties.
Addressing journalists in Aba, the state publicity secretary of the party, Chukwuemeka Nwokoro, said both lawmakers were elected on the APGA platform and should relinquish their mandates after defecting to the ADC and the Labour Party, respectively, adding that their exit had “liberated” the party from what he described as political constraints.
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